A look at the headlines right now:

  1. Amit Shah and Modi hold press briefing, say BJP will return to power with full majority: Congress President Rahul Gandhi mocked the prime minister for avoiding questions at the press meeting while the Congress claimed that Modi’s ‘extremist supporters’ had killed India’s soul.
  2. Narendra Modi says he will never be able to forgive Pragya Thakur for her Godse remark: BJP President Amit Shah, meanwhile, said the party would ask Thakur and two MPs to explain their remarks on Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin.
  3. Two suspected militants killed in encounter at Awantipora, says report: Police said a second encounter is under way at Anantnag.
  4. US lifts steel and aluminium tariffs on Canada and Mexico: This paves the way for the ratification of the new trade agreement that the three countries had signed in November.
  5. SC refuses to grant interim protection from arrest in rape case to SP-BSP candidate from Ghosi: Atul Rai is accused of raping a college student from Varanasi, after taking her home on the pretext of meeting his wife.
  6. Kamal Haasan says the term ‘Hindu’ is of foreign origin, people of the country are only Indians: The actor-turned-politician said neither the Alwar nor Nayanmar saints of the first millennium CE had called themselves Hindus.
  7. Pune court orders that copies of FSL reports be provided to two accused in Bhima Koregaon case: The court, however, added that only those documents which have been submitted to the court by the IO in the case can be copied and provided to the accused.  
  8. Saudi Aramco to supply Indian Oil Corp an additional two million barrels of oil per month: India also signed term import contracts with two US suppliers.
  9. Two more Indian mountaineers killed, another reported missing in Nepal: Ravi Thakar and Narayan Singh died on Mount Everest and Mount Makalu.
  10. Navjot Sidhu backs wife’s claim on being denied Chandigarh ticket, Amarinder Singh refutes charge: Kaur, who wanted to contest from Chandigarh, said that Singh had allegedly claimed that only he was capable of leading the Congress to victory.